Humanity

What drives a man to fight, even when there is no hope of victory?

What drives a man to follow a path that he knows will lead to his destruction?

Why, when faced with the inevitable truth of his own demise, does he still continue to press on?

Hello. It's me again. Judas. Today, we are going to talk about humanity.

Now, there are many degrees of humanity, even among my own kind. Surely you've noticed? The "Slender Man", he whom most of you are familiar with, is inhuman. And yet, there is just enough similarities that something approaching a comprehension can be made between it... and the mad.

Then you have beings like the "Archangel". It is utterly inhuman. Utterly beyond even the low threshold of humanity supplied by the "Slender Man". And yet, the "Archangel" has a mind that runs parallel to humanity, and so humans can interact with it fairly well, even if any true understanding is impossible, there are just enough coincidental similarities that mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationships can be forged with it.

Next, we will discuss the "Intrusion". It is not, in any way, shape, or form, human. It is not slightly human. It is not almost human. It is not even human-like. It is alien. Understanding of any kind cannot be forged between humans and the "Intrusion", and so its servants, the Drones, must relinquish their humanity. They do not give into madness, but remain fundamentally human like the "Slender Man"'s proxies. Nor do they attach some imaginary, divine concept to their lord like the "Archangel"'s cultists. No, the Drones, over time, lose the very essence of humanity. Their bodies become slowly more and more twisted, and as their physiology resembles humans less and less, so too do their minds. 

Sure, early stage Drones, such as the so-called Mad Ricky, maintain their humanity to an extent. And yes, it takes years of change for them to finally lose that human quality. But in the end, Drones become as the bees and the ants. They are individuals who none the less work together as a hive, with a singular purpose. Each has a task to fulfill, and nothing matters but the preservation of the colony. As the years pass, and they become more and more attached to the "Intrusion", the two intertwine, and the Drones become truly alien.

Finally, we have me. I am a fragment of the "Dying Man". Once, long ago, we were one being. It has been altogether too long since there was only one "Dying Man", instead of thousands of different pieces. One may wonder how such a shattering is possible.

I will tell you. As you have no doubt gleaned from my kind's use of speech and text, we are, out of all the beings you label as "Fears" or "Fossils" or "Gods" or what-have-you, the most human. It was our mind that humanity was most able to comprehend.

That was our weakness. That was our vulnerability. If we are ever to become one again, then we must shed those qualities. We must become as the "Intrusion". We must become alien, and only then may we remain strong. Only then may we remain One.

Matthias is a human. He is, simultaneously, weak and strong. He is weak because his mind is fragile. It can be shattered so easily. To cope with the world, he needs to create laws. He needs to look at the chaos of reality and find order in it. Long ago, this was the purpose of religion. Nowadays, religion still serves this purpose, but science is gaining way. As humans find evidence to support their illusion of a rational world, many are caught in the transition. Matthias believes in order and reason, and yet he also clings to his faith. This is the weakness of humanity. And this is also its strength. For these delusions are precisely what allow humans to keep fighting, even in the face of overwhelming adversity. Even when hope simply does not exist.

And make no mistake. No matter what you believe-- If you put your face in some deity, or believe only in cold, hard facts-- you are merely following an illusion. There is no grand set of rules and laws that the universe must follow. There is no such thing as order. There is only chaos.

The universe is chaos.

The universe is what we will it.